


Payment Plan: Eighth Installment

by Indehed



Series: Bride Price [8]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Possessive Behavior, Possessive Steve McGarrett
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-03
Updated: 2013-08-03
Packaged: 2017-12-22 07:26:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/910522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Indehed/pseuds/Indehed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny held his head in his hands as he listened in, now struck dumb by what he was hearing and there was no way he was intervening now. He knew Steve had marriage hang ups, but he hadn't known this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Payment Plan: Eighth Installment

**Author's Note:**

> Couldn't have done this so confidently without Paulette keeping it all steady. Thanks!

Danny took his time, letting Steve talk with his mother. After doing what he needed, he hunched over the sink and splashed cold water on his face. His vision was still swimming, his peripheral felt like it was shot to hell and if he turned his head too quickly he'd probably lose his balance. 

He pressed a wet hand to his forehead and closed his eyes. He was stupid to have drunk so much again. But it was a celebration right? Yippee and all that. He was married. Again. He'd married Steve, they'd had the ceremony, he'd worn the marriage binds, there'd been cake, there'd been music and laughter and a bunch of their friends telling them how great it was.

He sighed as his hand dropped again. Steve said they'd talk in the morning. Morning was best anyway because right now he couldn't allow himself to do anything rash. Last night had been a bit of a lesson. Drunken Danny wasn't always the right person to let take charge of his life. Lesson learned.

He didn't know how long he'd been in there, but surely no more than five minutes and he'd yet to hear the door close again. He'd expected Doris to say some pleasantries, maybe a quick conversation with Steve and then grab her purse and go. She must still be there.

Danny crept out of the bathroom and hovered on the landing, an ear straining to hear downstairs into the kitchen. He could hear them talking, they were certainly both still there. 

He moved halfway down the stairs and sat, a hand holding onto the banister.

"I just wanted to check that you were okay with it, is all. I didn't mean anything by it," Doris argued.

"You snooped around for the contract, mom."

"Please, it was in the top drawer of your desk. You may as well have framed it and put it on the wall," the CIA agent in Doris was clearly coming out to play tonight. 

"I'm perfectly okay with it."

"And Danny?"

There was a pause. "We're going to check it over tomorrow. He's fine though, he will be."

"I fully support you, Steve, but I have to play devil's advocate at times. It was drawn up fast, I just want to make sure--"

"Fast doesn't mean wrong. Besides, I knew what I was doing." Steve interrupted her, trying to put an end to her arguments. Danny was tempted to run in and put an end to it, but if Doris' arguments worked in his favor, maybe he owed this to Steve to let someone else also point things out to him.

"Okay, then." Doris paused now, then her softened as she spoke next. "You know, your father and I argued over ours for a good two weeks. Non-stop. He ever talk to you about it?"

"No," Steve shifted to lean on the counter top, arms crossed. "But I've seen the papers. I'm surprised something so weak would take so long."

"If your father had his way it wouldn't have been. He wanted to put a lot more in, kept saying he'd agree to anything."

That made Steve stand up straighter and Danny followed suit from his sitting position. This was taking a turn, and now Danny was reconsidering interrupting this, but Steve had heard something he wanted to find out more about and nothing was going to stop him getting answers.

"What are you talking about?"

"He was like you," Doris held up what looked like copies of Danny and Steve's contract. "Willing to add in all his assets, whatever I wanted, whatever my family wanted."

"But he didn't. Not in the end, the contract was weak," Steve surmised. 

"Anything can happen in life and for your father and I, it did."

Steve was tensing up as things dawned on him. Danny could practically feel the waves of anger from where he was sitting. "You made it easy for yourself to leave! To walk away from your family. Your husband, your kids?! Even then, you knew you would go back to the CIA without explanation."

"No, Steve, I didn't, how could I know that? I had history that could come back to haunt me, haunt all of us and when the Agency told me something was wrong, I had to go. And I had to be able to do it fast."

"You walked out and sent the divorce papers by courier. Already signed! I'm the one who opened the door to the guy holding that brown envelope. Dad was a mess and I'm the one who opened it up and saw what it said. _**I'm the one**_ who had to go up to my father and tell him you weren't coming back. Do you have any idea how that was for me? I was sixteen!"

Danny held his head in his hands as he listened in, now struck dumb by what he was hearing and there was no way he was intervening now. He knew Steve had marriage hang ups, but he hadn't known this.

"I'm sorry, Steven, but I had to."

"Dad never recovered, you know. He threw himself into his work, sent me and Mary-Ann away. Your pathetic contract is to blame for ruining his life."

Steve took steps to leave but was thwarted by Doris' outstretched arm grabbing onto his elbow. "You were all in danger if I stayed."

"I don't care. We were family. Family sticks together and sees things through. And it took me a long time to get that again and now I have it. Okay? And I don't care if you approve of my contract or not. I waited, mom. You think I never had offers before? I never accepted anything because I was holding out for something better."

"Danny and his daughter aren't just some ready-made family for you, Steve. You could have built your own not just latched onto your partner like a lifeline. What about Catherine?"

"Please," Steve snorted. "I love her in some ways, but there's no way we'd work out. We're too alike. In fact, she's too much like you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means she's too invested in her job. Danny, he… he lives for his family, for Grace. Everything he does is to make things safe for them, that's one of the reasons he became a cop and I'm going to make sure that he can keep doing that. I'm going to do for him what he does for everyone else, what he does for me."

"With a contract that basically says he can't leave you? Steve, no contract is foolproof."

"What?" Steve asked, like he was losing track of the conversation, of his own train of thought. 

"He could win the lottery next week or come into a great inheritance and have plenty of cash to get a great lawyer who would settle this contract for him and he'd be out like a shot. Right now he might be stuck in it but things change, situations, laws… a month, a year, ten years from now he could still leave you."

"You act like it's a done deal, like everyone who marries is like you and goes into it making sure they can get out of it. Danny's not like that."

"Really? You told me already that you're going over this thing again in the morning. What does he want to do, huh? Want to bring it down a notch or two? What would that mean for the ease in which either of you can get out of it?"

"He's not… it's not about that…"

"Really? Maybe he's more like me than you think."

"He's not getting away from me." Steve shook off Doris' arm and stormed out of the kitchen and into the living room. Danny stood up from the middle stair he was on in surprise. He had been engrossed in his eavesdropping and now it was clear he was getting caught out. 

Steve's eyes turned to the movement and focused on Danny. "You heard…?"

"Yeah," Danny nodded, nervously. He was stupid, so stupid; he should have stopped Doris when he had the chance. As he'd listened his heart had sunk. Originally making sense, and keeping things calm, he'd been fine with Steve having his moment with his mother but as it had become more agitated, he regretted that. Rooted to the spot, it was like he was rubbernecking a car crash and he couldn't bring himself to move despite the sinking feeling in his stomach as Doris wound Steve up tighter and tighter. 

Whatever Steve read in Danny's body language wasn't good. He bounded up to meet Danny and pulled him into a tight embrace, burying his head in Danny's neck. It took a moment as Danny's hands flailed in mid-air, keeping them balanced. 

One thing was for sure, Steve had been drinking straight vodka on top of his beer and there was no way that hadn't affected how he had felt during the time with his mother, who, it seems, had slipped out the back again and was taking the long way round to her car. 

"Steve?" Danny tried, carefully tangling one hand in the back of his head, while the other soothed over his shoulder. 

The sound of Danny's voice brought Steve's head up. His neck felt damp and he could see the wetness shining in Steve's hardening eyes. He brought a hand to Danny's face, the hold tighter than normal, fingers gripping into his neck. 

He closed the gap again and kissed Danny hard, almost aggressively. "Tomorrow, we can add in more. I'm giving you more, Danny, I have to. I can't turn out like my dad, I can't." He lodged his head in Danny's neck again and breathed deeply, arms encircling him and pulling in tight like a limpet. 

This wasn't square one, Danny gulped as he thought it. This was more like square minus ten. He had his work cut out for him.

**Author's Note:**

> explanation: I did say we had to get to rock bottom, thing is, I never meant Danny. The only person who could put Steve in that place, was the person who did it to him originally. But the person who can pull him out, is the one he hangs onto for dear life.
> 
> another note: I don't want my previous notes on comments taken too badly the other way, and I don't want to sound either preachy or ungrateful. I'm very open to having people express themselves honestly based on my writing. If I'm doing my super-villain whumping thing then a comment telling me I'm evil is perfectly acceptable, and the debate that has sprung up around this one has been truly fascinating to read! The only thing I ask for is to respect the person behind the computer screen who puts time and effort into a craft. It's something I like to think I hold for other authors and I ask the same in return. My philosophy is pretty much 'don't be a dick' and that's in all facets of life :) Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...


End file.
